Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Essentialism (my new favorite conversation)

I finished reading Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Lessa few weeks back and I've been practicing some of the principles it encourages. The book has a lot of great stuff in it but there are two concepts that struck me the most.

Less but Better sums up the core concept of Essentialism but because I'm a visual gal I love that there are some simple doodles that go with the ideas.

Let's take how we spend our energy... when we're too scattered and all over the place we end up only going a millimeter in a million directions. But when we focus and eliminate other drains we can go far.

So simple and can apply to any area of our lives. What can we eliminate so our focus takes us where we want to go and we have the energy to get us there?!

Since one of the keys I talk about with ME Mapping is decluttering I also love the Chapter 13 regarding editing. Because maybe just as important as being the authors of our lives we need to embrace that we are also the editors of our lives too. He uses a different Michelangelo quote then I usually use but with the same idea. When asked about how he created something as magnificent as the David he explained that he took a big piece of marble and simply chipped away anything that was not David.

That's how we can create a masterpiece of a life for ourselves. Chip away anything that is not essentially ME/YOU.

Greg McKeown did not say anything in this book that was so revolutionary, but giving the conversation a frame like Essentialism and using clear images and stories it really sticks.

I was telling a close friend how much I was enjoying this book when she mentioned it sounded similar to The ONE Thing by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan (TH!NK review below).

And she was right, they have different points of emphasis and verbiage to relay their concepts but they are both brilliant and are two of my favorite books I've read in years. Together they will change your life. They did mine. I look at everything and ask is this essential? And even if it is... is it the one thing I need to be focused on at this moment?

Both of these books are so on message with ME Mapping that I will be recommending them for years to come. So I urge you to get them immediately, read them in the same order, and then get down to your essentials and begin to focus on your ONE thing.

[And... if you know JOY is essential to succeeding at your ONE thing come join ME for the next Workshop :) ]